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Transportation funding expected to be big part of Gov. Corbett's budget address

Repairs on the George Wade bridge

PennDOT's long-running efforts to repair the George Wade bridge continues as work on the steel underneath the decking progresses. The bridge takes tens of thousands of people over the Susquehanna River each day.
JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

When Gov. Tom Corbett unveils his proposed budget next week, eyes across the state will be focused on one area – transportation.

As part of his address, Corbett is expected to unveil his plan for addressing Pennsylvania's transportation woes, an estimated $3.5 billion needed to fix the state's roads and crumbling bridges.

In 2010, the American Society for Civil Engineers graded each state's infrastructure. Pennsylvania received a “C” for its bridges (27 percent of which are deemed structurally deficient) and a “D-” for its roads.

This year, the governor is widely expected to push for raising a cap set on taxes assessed on wholesale gasoline sales. It's the taxes paid by gas stations when they purchase their gasoline from distributors.

For the last several years, the cap has been set at $1.25, meaning wholesale gas sales are taxed at that dollar figure. But the wholesale price of gas has almost doubled over the last few years.

Raising the index – either at once or over a several-year period – could generate as much as $1.9 billion per year for the Commonwealth, although that cost would undoubtedly trickle down to consumers at the pump.

How much more would it cost? Estimates range as high as $0.20 per gallon if the cap is lifted completely and immediately.

Money generated by the change is expected to be split between local municipal funding, state road and bridge repairs and mass transit.

Another initiative that could be on the table next week is moving revenue from traffic tickets out of the general fund and into a new intermodal transportation fund. The revenue generated by tickets would then be used to fund non-bridge and highway projects, including rail and aviation.

Also possibly on the table is a restructuring of Act 44. Act 44 requires the Pennsylvania Turnpike to transfer $450 million per year to PennDOT. Originally the money was to come from the tolling of I-80, which never happened.

The governor's plan could include a phase-out of the Act 44 payments by the turnpike.

Add it all up and the governor's proposal for transportation funding could be more than $2 billion in new revenues annually. Whether or not that will happen, however, will be up the Legislature.

The state Senate is said to have its own plan to address Pennsylvania's transportation problem. How closely it meshes with the Governor's remains to be seen.

Politically, the governor is expected to use jobs to sell his transportation plan, much like education is the carrot for the privatization of the state's liquor system. More highway funding means more jobs, something Pennsylvania, with its 7.9 percent unemployment rate desperately needs.

Whatever the final product, transportation advocates are hoping for a long-term solution rather than a short-term band aid.

Even so, the governor's proposal is not the end-game for Pennsylvania's transportation funding. Right now the majority of road funding comes from taxes assessed on gasoline, which is not widely considered a sustainable income source.

As vehicles become more fuel efficient, gas taxes net less. Eventually advocates – both for and against gas taxes – see the state (as well as the nation) moving to some form of user fee.

Oregon is piloting one program that uses GPS to track drivers and assess as fee based on the miles they drive, but it's running up against privacy concerns.

The other challenge to any user-fee system is how to track and capture out-of state vehicles driving on Pennsylvania's roads.

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